What is it specifically that you love about bossa nova?
It’s purely sensation. I think it’s sexy, it’s romantic, but there’s also this undercurrent of melancholy to it. I used it in my second film Next Stop Wonderland. It was really the soundtrack for that film. And since then, I’ve grown more and more obsessed with it. And it’s just an escapist kind of music, but it’s also deeply emotional. And to me, it just seemed like the perfect kind of music to lay into a musical. The music is very understated bossa nova. You don’t croon it. It’s more jazz vocals. I thought that would be an interesting approach for a musical. It’s not like a Busby Berkeley type thing, it’s more like understated characters sitting at a bar quietly singing as they drink their beer or something. So is this a good time or a bad time to pitch a musical? I don’t know, I guess it depends on what you’re talking about. Chicago and Moulin Rouge, fairly successful, and this latest one, the Cole Porter one, wasn’t so much. But I think there’s starting to be some interest in music
